CHAPTER 114: OSTRACIZED

"Why?" Fang Che asked in a perplexed manner. "The time's still not up yet..."

"There are some people here to see you. Come out within five seconds, or else!" the overseeing instructor declared in a stern manner.

Fang Che was instantly struck by a sense of foreboding.

He hurriedly rose to his feet, then stepped out of the cultivation chamber with a puzzled expression.

"What's going on?"

He immediately spotted Li Changkong and Bing Shangxue looking at him with concerned expressions.

Standing beside them was a cold, stern, and unfamiliar face.

"You're Fang Che, right?"

"That's right."

"Take him away!"

The people behind Xiang Xinghe stepped forward to apprehend Fang Che before forcibly escorting him out of the room.

Right at this moment, Qiu Yunshang, Yu Zhongge, Jing Shuanggao, and Xie Gongping also came to the cultivation chambers, just in time to see Fang Che being taken away.

"What happened, Boss?" Qiu Yunshang asked.

"I don't know, these people wanted to see me..."

"Step aside!" Xiang Xinghe snapped in a cold voice.

"May I ask what's going on here?" Yu Zhongge asked with tightly furrowed brows. "We are Fang Che's close friends, and we would like to know why he's being taken away."

"What's the point in telling you?" Xiang Xinghe scoffed.

Yu Zhongge's temper instantly flared up as he snapped, "If we know what's going on, we can at least call upon our connections to see if they can pull some strings! Even if someone's broken the law, their family would try to call upon their connections to see if anything can be done! Is that not a reasonable thing to do?"

As the heir to a second-tier clan, Yu Zhongge wasn't afraid of anyone.

"All you need to know is that he's under official investigation. Go tell your connections that," Xiang Xinghe scoffed, then departed with the detained Fang Che.

"What the hell is wrong with him?!" Yu Zhongge snapped. "We've come here to learn, not to be treated like criminals! You think I don't have connections to call upon? Think again!"

Qiu Yunshang patted him on the shoulder as he said, "Settle down. Even if we have connections to call upon, we have to find out what's going on first to determine if that's a good idea."

"A lot of people have been detained in the academy recently, and I've heard it all has something to do with collecting jade. If that's what Boss is being taken away for, then he could be in some trouble. Let's wait and see for now," Jing Shuanggao said with tightly furrowed brows.

"Yeah, it's too early to do anything," Xie Gongping chimed in. "Apparently, all of the students that were detained for jade collection were spies for the demonic churches. If Fang Che is in the same camp, then we'd be fools for supporting him!"

All of a sudden, all of the anger seemed to have drained from Yu Zhongge's face, and he was looking much more composed, but in a rather unsettling way, as if there were something bubbling beneath the calm facade.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jing Shuanggao snapped. "Has it been determined that Boss is a spy for the demonic churches? Everything's still up in the air, yet you're already calling him Fang Che instead of Boss!"

Qiu Yunshang was also very displeased, and he glowered at Xie Gongping as he said, "If Boss really is discovered to be a spy for the demonic churches, then you'd be correct, but right now, you have no right to speak about him like that!"

Never had Xie Gongping imagined that such a fair statement from him would be met with so much backlash.

"I'm just speaking the truth! What are all of you getting mad at me for?"

"It's not what you said, it's how you said it! It's almost like you were taking joy in Boss being taken away! You think we're too stupid to hear the schadenfreude in your voice?" Qiu Yunshang snapped.

"Boss has always looked after us, and we've all learned so much from him, so we're all indebted to him. What are you doing acting all high and mighty before we even know if Boss is guilty or not? You're lucky Mo Ganyun isn't here, or else he'd beat the shit out of you! Clearly, you don't see us as your friends and brothers. Otherwise, you'd never say something like that!" Jing Shuanggao harrumphed coldly.

"I... I didn't mean it like that at all!" Xie Gongping protested in a stunned voice. "You know I didn't mean it like that!"

"I'm going to cultivate now," Yu Zhongge said in an indifferent manner as he made his way toward the cultivation chambers, and it was as if the ongoing argument had nothing to do with him.

Everyone else followed along behind him, with no one even sparing a glance at Xie Gongping.

Qiu Yunshang was standing the closest to Xie Gongping, and the latter grabbed onto his sleeve as he implored, "Let me explain..."

"Get off me!" Qiu Yunshang snapped as he shook off Xie Gongping's hand in a disdainful manner before following the others inside.

In that instant, Xie Gongping felt as if he had suddenly been ostracized, all for saying something that he still felt was objectively correct.

What did I say that was wrong? Are we supposed to just support Fang Che blindly, even if he's a spy for the demonic churches? Also, if he's found to be guilty, then he'll naturally be removed from our group. Doesn't that present all of you with the perfect opportunity to take this place? Surely all of you can't be happy with being an underling to someone from a ninth-tier clan! How am I at fault here? What the hell's wrong with these people from major clans?!

Xie Gongping was furious. In his eyes, his peers from major clans had no respect for him. They kept him around as a lackey when they were in a good mood, but discarded him like a used rag as soon as their mood took a turn for the worse!

***

Wu Zhibing was standing under the shadow of a tree in the distance, and he heaved a forlorn sigh.

While it was true that Xie Gongping hadn't said anything wrong, his delivery was very much lacking.

Everyone had agreed to refer to whoever was the most powerful warrior in the group as their boss, and even though he was under investigation, he was still the boss of the group.

If it were confirmed that Fang Che was indeed a spy, then at that point, no one would have any complaints about referring to Fang Che directly by name, but it was simply premature to do so now.

Even if Fang Che were later found guilty, Xie Gongping still wouldn't be forgiven for this transgression.

What Xie Gongping failed to understand was that people from affluent clans often received strict etiquette training from a young age, making them particularly sensitive to such fine details.

Under normal circumstances, this had no bearing on everyone's day-to-day interactions, but Fang Che's detainment was the first significant event to have taken place in the group, and as a result, certain differences between the group's members had been brought to the fore.

The fact that Xie Gongping had turned on Fang Che so easily was a reflection of his character.

The likes of Yu Zhongge, Qiu Yunshang, and Jing Shuanggao had come to the academy both for education purposes and to establish their future teams.

They were not here to make friends, and they were certainly not here purely for an education. Instead, they were paving the way for their future rise to the top.

Hence, Xie Gongping's display of bad character immediately drew the ire of everyone, and given their backgrounds, they didn't have to worry about what Xie Gongping thought. If they didn't like him, they would kick him out of the group. It was as simple as that.

They were looking for brothers-in-arms to whom they could entrust their lives to in the future, so taking on a comrade with dubious character was absolutely unacceptable.

These were the problems that the likes of Mo Ganyun and Yu Zhongge had to consider.

Xie Gongping possessed good aptitude and was normally a decent guy, but he harbored an innate sense of inferiority in the face of people from clans more affluent than his own. On top of that, the etiquette training of his clan wasn't anywhere near as rigorous as what others in the group had experienced, and that led him to occasionally display certain unfavorable traits.

Even if a dragon were to fall from the heavens and have all of its bones shattered, it would still be a dragon, and it was not to be looked down on by ants!

If the dragon were to perish, then it hardly mattered what the world thought of it, but so long as it still drew breath, it was not to be insulted!

Given Xie Gongping's age and upbringing, there was no way he could understand this type of mentality, and that was why he was so frustrated and perplexed.

Instead, he felt as if he were being targeted.

He felt like the more privileged members of the group never had any respect for him in the first place, and that they were only using this as an excuse to dishonorably discharge him from the group.

Right at this moment, Ding Jieran also arrived at the spirit qi gravity cultivation chambers, and Xie Gongping's eyes instantly lit up.

Ding Jieran was much closer to him in upbringing, so surely he would understand.

With that in mind, Xie Gongping immediately gave him a warm greeting.

A puzzled look appeared on Ding Jieran's face.

Why hasn't he gone in yet?

However, he was so averse to speaking that he didn't want to raise the question.

If I were to ask, he would reply, and I would have to say something in response, so I'm just not going to say anything in the first place.

"Brother Five!" Xie Gongping greeted enthusiastically.

At the moment, Ding Jieran was ranked fifth in the group.

Ding Jieran nodded in response.

A sullen look appeared on Xie Gongping's face as he said, "I was targeted by the others just now..."

With that, he gave Ding Jieran a recount of what had just happened, then concluded, "They've gone way too far, wouldn't you agree?"

A peculiar look appeared in Ding Jieran's eyes, and his gaze settled like a sharp sword on Xie Gongping's throat.